So lonely...

[McNeo]

Stuart awoke, and stared around the room. He only saw the woman that he had met in the bar, not Rick.

"Where is he?"

'Who?'

"Rick...Rick Deckard, he was here when I fell asleep."

'You were asleep. You just whispered his name a few moments ago.'

"Oh. So, I was dreaming?"

'Possibly.'

"I see."

Leaning forwards, supporting his back with his arms, he felt his chest for any sign of operation. The signs were there. Stiches, skin grafts and general repairs. He was going to have to get that replaced by some proper skin replacements some day, but that wasn't the primary concern. It felt tight. As he tried to lean back to rest on the bed he was on, the stiches felt like they were going to break, such was the tension. He slowed down to a snails pace, as he tried to lean back without damaging his freshly grafted skin.

The woman got up, and with a slight smirk that quickly changed into the empathetic smile he thought he had seen before, she helped him to lie down on his bed. Progress was slow, but that was what the skin grafts demanded. For the time being anyway.

As he lay in bed after the excruciatingly slow pace at which he lied down, he thought.

When would Rick turn up? Would he turn up at all?

He would just have to wait, but how long would it take?